When to discard brass after many reloads?

[roadwarrior]

Ok, here it is guys. I have been reloading for roughly 2 years in small quantity. I have obviously not gotten to the point that I may need to throw away brass. My question to you is: how do you know that a particular casing has reached the point that it has been reloaded for the last time, before it may fail?

 

[kevguy]

Ok, here it is guys. I have been reloading for roughly 2 years in small quantity. I have obviously not gotten to the point that I may need to throw away brass. My question to you is: how do you know that a particular casing has reached the point that it has been reloaded for the last time, before it may fail?

Neck cracks and primer won't stay in primer pocket are the usual.

 

[formerfarmer]

+2 on cracks and primer pockets. At least on handgun brass. No idea on rifles.

 

[vviking]

-Loose pockets.
-Incipient case head seperation (bright narrow ring at the top of the web, not to be confused with the normal sizer rub mark). F.L.sizing hastens this failure.
-excessive stretching and trimming.
-expansion of the extractor groove to the point it will no longer enter shellholder.
-neck tension variation from uneven work hardening (annealing overcomes this).

 

[easyrider604]

My question to you is: how do you know that a particular casing has reached the point that it has been reloaded for the last time?

When I cannot find it.

Kidding aside, I think your question has been answered completely by the above posters.

 

[roadwarrior]

Thanks guys!

Now, how many of you actually keep count on the number of times you have reloaded a particular batch of casings? Or do you just watch out for what was said above?

 

[ffwd]

I tried to keep track, but kind of lost interest in doing so, after many people, with more experience than I, said to shoot it until the neck splits, or the primers won't stay in.

 

[tbrwlf]

As the others suggest. Inspect each one after cleaning. If it has any blemish or deformity that gives you any concern, chuck it. Brass is not that expensive and I would rather be overly cautious than injured.

 

[tjhaile]

I don't discard brass after a set number of loadings. If there is nothing visibly wrong with it, it will last at least one more firing.

 

[roadwarrior]

Great, thanks for the info guys.

 

[hunter5425]

If one case in a batch shows a cracked neck or a very loose primer I replace the whole batch rather then wait for each to go bad, that way I am always shooting brass from the same lot and manufacturer.

 

[Dean2]

I track mine for number of uses just for fun. I have many different rounds and have quite a few cartridges over 20. Few give me trouble before I hit 12, unless I am really hot rodding them. I even have some 7 Rem mag that are over 10 full force hunting loads and still going strong. I rarely FL size anything unless it gets tight to chamber, and I pre-test the chambering on all my big game rounds but don't worry about it on target or varmint loads.

I never anneal so my first sign the brass is gone is usually neck splits, I have rarely lost them to pocket expansion except for the heavily hot rodded rounds when testing upper limits of loads.

 

[M12shooter]

Expanded primer pockets and work hardened necks that begin to split. If you keep your loads on the milder side and trim your brass it will last suprisingly long. I am still loading 22-250 and 25-06 brass from the 1980's.

 

[Super_Chicken]

Can anybody post a picture of two pieces of brass side by side. One normal and the other with the split neck (to the point where you would throw it away).

 

[roadwarrior]

Expanded primer pockets and work hardened necks that begin to split. If you keep your loads on the milder side and trim your brass it will last suprisingly long. I am still loading 22-250 and 25-06 brass from the 1980's.

All my loads are at least 0.5 gr. under the listed Maximum and I do check and trim my brass as needed.

I have some neck sizing dies for a few of my calibers and yes I beleive it helps prolonging the brass's life. What I really need to find know is a good neck sizing die to complement my RCBS F/L 300WSM set. Anyone got a suggestion?

 

[M12shooter]

All my loads are at least 0.5 gr. under the listed Maximum and I do check and trim my brass as needed.

I have some neck sizing dies for a few of my calibers and yes I beleive it helps prolonging the brass's life. What I really need to find know is a good neck sizing die to complement my RCBS F/L 300WSM set. Anyone got a suggestion?

Contact RCBS in California. They are always more than helpful.

 

[Ganderite]

With rifle, I take a large quantty of brass and sort by weight and then load in 50 round boxes. Eventally some of the caes start to fail. Then I scrap the entie batch of cases and buy another batch of once fired or virgin brass and start over.

 

[ykkid]

If you are reloading for a hunting round, it is not a bad plan to set aside "some" new cases, and track the number of reloads. Two or three is probably enough for a hunting cartridge. Go on to use those same cases for practice, plinking, or whatever. Not using a case that has been fired and reloaded multiple times is just being overly cautious, but hey, if the hunt of a lifetime is screwed up because a bullet slipped inside a too overworked case neck, or the extractor ripped off a case head, preventing a stopping shot, well, for 50 cents, I'd use a newer case. Just me.

 

[Shootshellz]

Don't discard your B/O brass; recycle (for ca$h) instead.....

 

[Bearcat]

I started using a Lee neck sizing die , and I quit reloading one batch of 223 brass after 34 times.I started out with 50 pieces, and by time I junked them,I had tossed 4 due to neck splits, and I only ad to trim 6 out of the 50 once. 21.5 gr IMR with a 55 gr bullet


Bearcat